Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Harold Gubnitsky
Director, Co-Founder
Harold Gubnitsky is one of STAT-EI’s co-founders and is a member of its Board of Directors. Harold brings 35+ years of expertise in high-tech and entrepreneurial leadership.
He brings industry recognized Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform development/delivery expertise to the company, having developed companies and services in this area. In addition, he is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with strong renewable energy and climate change project mitigation background. Since 2000, Harold has developed several successful companies in these spaces.
Harold works with the team to develop a high reliability global SaaS platform and to implement redundant systems that combine high-performance and reliability.
Harold holds bachelor’s degrees in business and computer science from Florida State University.
Email: hgubnitsky@STAT-EI.com
Augusto Vidaurreta
Chief Executive Officer
Gus Vidaurreta leads STAT-EI’s efforts to introduce globally, both advanced artificial intelligence grid-optimization tools and wireless electric vehicle charging technology. He is a recognized entrepreneurial veteran of several industries, including artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
Gus has lived in Southern Florida most of his life, weathering the ravages of hurricanes and resulting grid issues. He is enthusiastic about artificial intelligence’s ability to optimize load/demand issues, to improve grid resiliency and to enhance Smart Grid operation, including greatly improved use of energy storage and advanced predictive tools–knowing such tools will become ever more important with deeper penetration of renewable energy resources and energy storage on the grid.
Gus holds an MBA in organizational behavioral studies from the University of Florida, a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida International University, and certifications from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He has a rich ongoing relationship with Florida International University including strong ties to their school of business.
Email: gvidaurreta@STAT-EI.com
Dr. Arif Sarwat
Director of Technology and Technical Advisor, Co-Founder
Prof. Arif Sarwat has been in the industry (Siemens) and academia for more than 20 years. He is an Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Director of the FPL-FIU Solar Research Facility and Energy Power Sustainability-Intelligence(EPSi) group at FIU. He is also the Principal Investigator for the state-of-the-art grid-connected 3MW/9MWh AI-based Renewable (AIR) Microgrid long-term project funded by FPL.
His research interests include smart grids, electric vehicles, high penetration renewable systems, storage, and battery management systems, grid resiliency, large-scale data analysis, artificial intelligence, advanced metering infrastructure, smart city infrastructure, and cybersecurity. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and multiple patents.
He currently has multiple funded projects; funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), industry, and the Department of Energy (DOE). This list includes the NSF CAREER Award. He is the co-lead on the Masters in Energy Cybersecurity education program.
Previously, Dr. Sarwat worked at Siemens for more than nine years, winning three recognition awards. He is the author/co-author of a publication that won the best paper award at the Resilience Week in 2017 and a technical article that won both the best paper award in 2016 as well as the most cited paper award in 2018 from Springer’s Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy (MPCE). His team won the second-best paper award at IEEE NAPS conference in the year 2020. Dr. Sarwat received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research Creative Activities in 2016, College of Engineering Computing Worlds Ahead Performance in 2016, and FIU TOP Scholar Award in 2015 and 2019. He has been the chair of the IEEE Miami Section VT and Communication since 2012.
He is an associate editor of the journals ACM Computing Surveys and IEEE IAS. For further information, please visit: http://www.eps.fiu.edu.
Email: asarwat@STAT-EI.com
Syed Ali Rahman
Chief Operating Officer, Board Member
Ali Rahman has been a part of several successful growth stories joining organizations in early stages and building teams from the ground up to support expanding business needs in the highly regulated pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industries. He was a part of the leadership team that evaluated and oversaw mergers and acquisitions. He is a registered engineer in the States of Florida and Illinois and a certified Project Management Professional. Syed completed his undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, and MS in Environmental Engineering from Syracuse University, New York.
Email: aliasma@gmail.com